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Urban District
An Urban District was a type of local government district that existed in England and Wales from 1894-1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1894 and abolished within Greater London by the London Government Act 1963 and outside London by the Local Government Act 1972. Urban districts did not exist in modern Inner London which was governed by incorporated Vestries or District Boards of Works from 1855-1900 and by Metropolitan Boroughs from 1900-65. History During the nineteenth century a number of towns and districts formed local boards either by local acts of parliament or under the terms of the Public Health Act 1848 or the Local Government Act 1858. These, along with Municipal Boroughs, became "urban sanitary authorities" under the Public health Act 1872. The constitutions of the local boards varied: some had ex officio members and ratepayers had multiple votes based on the amount of property they owned. Women were not allowed to vote or be members of the boards. The Local Government Act 1894 reformed all existing urban sanitary authorities: their areas were to become Urban Districts and their governing body an Urban District Council (UDC). The new UDCs were the successors of the old local boards, although they often had very different constitutions. Urban districts formed a second tier of local government below the county council of the administrative county in which they lay. The county council or the Local Government Board (and later Ministry of Health) could make orders constituting new urban districts, extending them or dividing them into wards for the election of councillors. The first elections of urban district councillors were held in December 1894: generally on Monday 17th although the county council could vary this to any date between the 15th and 19th due to local circumstances. Women were allowed to vote and be councillors. The councillors were deemed to come into office on 31 December 1894, and were to hold their first meeting on that date or shortly afterwards. For this reason some urban district councils came into existence in 1894 and some in 1895. At the first meeting a chairman and vice-chairman were elected: this was to be the first business of each annual meeting of the council held in April or May each year. The term of office of urban district councillors was three years. One third of the council would resign each year unless the council had passed a resolution by a two thirds majority that there should be elections of the entire council every three years. Urban district councils had the right to petition the crown for a charter of incorporation to become a municipal borough. If a charter was granted the urban district council was replaced by a borough corporation consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councillors. The process of reviewing and amalgamating districts was simplified by the Local Government Act 1933, which allowed large scale County Review Orders to reorganise districts within an administrative counties. Abolition On 1 April 1965 the London Government Act 1963 came into effect, replacing all existing local authorities with London Boroughs. The remaining urban districts of Outer London were merged with other authorities to form part of the new boroughs. Outside Greater London urban districts survived for another nine years. On 1 April 1974 they were abolished and replaced by district councils. See: List of Urban Districts of Outer London 1894-1965 Category:Local government Category:Urban Districts